1. Field
One or more aspects disclosed herein relate to a system and apparatus for managing and controlling energy, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for easily managing and controlling energy by grouping terminal controllers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, as the supply of fossil energy is being exhausted, and the cost of energy consumption rises, much attention has been paid to efficient use of energy. An amount of energy consumed in buildings occupies a large percentage of a total amount of energy consumed in various domains. In particular, since a large building includes several hundred to several thousand devices consuming energy, e.g., lighting devices, cooling/heating devices, water supply devices, and disaster preventing devices, an amount of energy consumed in the building may vary greatly according to a method of operating such terminal devices. Thus, effective management of energy consumed in the building is a very important factor in operating the building. Interests in efficient energy management have recently been extended to a household domain, and systems for efficiently managing devices consuming energy in a house have been developed. In general, such a system may be referred to as a building energy management system (BEMS) when the system is related to a building, and may be referred to as a home energy management system (HEMS) when the system is related to a house.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a conventional BEMS 100. Referring to FIG. 1, each of terminal devices 140 consuming energy is controlled by one of terminal controllers 130, and each of the terminal controllers 130 is controlled by one of field controllers 120. A central controller 110 controls the field controller 120 to control the terminal devices 140. For example, the field controllers 120 may control all lighting devices in a building, and the terminal controllers 130 may control lighting devices installed on a particular floor of the building. For the record, a terminal controller may be referred to as a unit controller depending on a system; however, for the purpose of better understanding of the present invention, such unit controller will be referred to as a terminal controller throughout this application.
According to the conventional method, equipment should be installed according to a protocol of an energy management system. Also, if terminal devices, such as a sensor, a lighting device, and valves, are additionally installed, a controller should be programmed in relation to the additional installment and a number of terminal devices that are operable is limited. Furthermore, many efforts should be made to maintain and repair the energy management system. For example, according to the conventional method, the terminal controller 130 is operated dependently on the field controller 120. Thus, when the terminal device 140 or the terminal controller 130 is added, changed, or removed, settings regarding the terminal device 140 or the terminal controller 130 should be changed in the field controller 120. Also, the field controller 120 is compatible with only a particular type of the terminal controller 130, and a user will experience inconvenience when a different type of a terminal controller is used. Furthermore, when one of the field controllers 120 malfunctions, all terminal controllers 130 and terminal devices 140 subject to the field controller 120 cannot be controlled.